Vesul. Students from Luxembourg unveil the stele in tribute to the crew of the Mirage 2000D which crashed in Mignovillard
On January 9, 2019, a Mirage 2000D from Nancy-Ochey Air Base 133 was crashing in a forest area in Mignovillardon the border between Doubs and Jura.
The accident cost the lives of the crew membersthe Captain Baptiste Chirié and Lieutenant Audrey Michelon. It is to pay homage to them that twelve students from Luxembourg Vocational High School of Vesoul, in Terminale class, industrial boilermaking section, joined forces with the military boilermakers of air base 116 to create a metal stele. This will be designated not far from the crash site, on the anniversary date, January 9, 2023.
1.80 meters of steel with, at the top, a two-seater Mirage 2000D two meters long. The model, identical to the one that had disappeared from radar, is more than similar. To reproduce it, Marc Ballandier, professor of industrial engineering metal structures who supervises young people, was inspired by a photo.
Tribute to fallen soldiers
“We drew the plans on the computer, then we created the part in 3D,” explains Mylan Robert, a boilermaking student. “Then, we transmitted the plans to a programming software to send it to laser cutting”, adds his comrade Antoine Cholley.
The base and the foot have been cut to reveal the ranks and names of the two teammates who died in the accident, as well as the name of the BA 116. Two metal plates, engraved with the faces of the two soldiers, must still be welded on the foot of the stele.
“All boilermaking skills combined”
“It’s really good work,” admires the headmaster, Philippe Girard. “It’s all the boilermaking skills that are grouped together in one book. It is a multidisciplinary exercise for the students, who refine their knowledge and do a duty of memory. “A way also to highlight this sector” always in high demand “in this vocational school which is the only of the department to the proposal.
The work will leave this Friday towards BA 116, to be polished and painted by the military boilermakers. If there is already a stele in memory of the crew, the news “will enhance the tribute to the crew of the Nancy air base”, underlines the headmaster.
The steel sculpture will be established not far from the site of the accident, in Mignovillard, during a ceremony in the presence in particular of the relatives of the victims, on the occasion of the four years of the crash, on January 9, 2023.